Method of producing steel bars and plates.



W. McO'ONWAY. METHODOF PRODUCING STEEL BARS AND PLATES.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.17,1911. I 994,826.,

Patented June 6, 1931.

awuwwcw UNITED STATES PATENT WILLIAM MQCONWAY, or :errTsBUns,'PENusYLvANIAQ To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM MCGONWAY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State ofPennsylvania, have invented certam new and useful Im rovements in Meth:ods of Producing Stee Bars and Plates; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the 1oinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to niake and use the same. I

My invention relates to a method'of producing steel bars and platesdevoid ofpiping, of uniform quality throughout and in an economicalmanner.

Heretofore in the manufacture of steel bar and plate the usual methodhas involved the castingof a steel ingot of such cross sec tional areaand shape aswhen elongatedby forging and rolling the ingot will producea bar or plate of the desired length and cross sectional area. Theseingots are usually square or rectangular in cross sec-' tion and of suchdimen sions that in cooling the metal draws from the center of the ingottoward the surface forming what is "technically known as a piperesulting in defects that require the ITGjGCtIOIl of a considso erableportion the ingot, and furthermore ingot to vary in quality.

the lack of uniformity in the cooling or setting of the molten metalthroughout the mass results in the segregation of the steel elementswhich causes different parts of the From an ingot of square orrectangular cross section and of the required length, said ingotproduced in the manner hereinbefore specified, the piped or defectiveportion is 40 either first cut off, orfroifn, the ingot elongated in therolls there is temoved that portion found to be defectiue from the samecause. This, usual, method of producing steel bar and plate, resultsfirst in a mate- }ria-l loss from the ingot which greatly adds to thecost of manufacture, and second gives rise to a constantly existinguncertainty as to whether or not the metal-in the bar or up to sample.

To overcome the loss incident to, and the defects in the bar or plateresulting from the present practice of producing steel bar 'and plate isthe objectof my present invention.

To this end, my invent-ion taken as a Whole, and generally statedconsists in first plate is of uniform quality throughout, or"

Mnmon or PRODUCING STEEL BARS Ann mamas,

Patented ones, 1911. Application filed February 1?, 191 1. Serial No.609,149. f

" casting an annular ingot, ofattenuated sec-= .tion, that is to say ofa thickness which will permit the quick and'uniform setting of themolten metal throughout the mass. whereby piping withintheingot isavoided; secondly, transforming. the ingot by pressure which increasesone 'dimensionand. diminishes another dimension of the ingot, third,rolling the annulus or. blank thus produced to increase its diameterandreduceits cross section; and finally dividing therolledarb nulus toform a billet, so that the sameor the sections thereof may besubjected-to rolling in the usual plate or. bar mills fonthe productionof the ultimateplateor bar.

In .the drawings chosen for. the purpose of illustrating my invention;Figure l is a pla-nvie-w ofan' annular steel ingot, adapt ed for thepurposes of any invention, asit comes from the mold with the Esprue andsinking heads attached; Fig."2 is a. section of the annular ingot as itcomes, fromthemold; Fig. 3is a plan view of the ingot with the sprue andsinking heads removed; Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the ingot shown inplan in Fig. 3; Fi 5 is a plan [view of the annular ingot after itliasbeen subjected to pressure to increase its diameter and decrease itslength; Fig. ,6 is .a sectional view of the ingot shown in Fig. 5 ;-Fig.7 is a plan view of the annular ingot shown in Figs.

5 and 6 after it has been subjected to rolling to increase its diameterand decrease its cross section; Fig. 8 is a plan view of the annulusshown in Fig.7- divided into a plurality of sections for final rolling;Fig. 9 is a plan view of the annulus shown in Fig. 7

out at a single point to enable it to be" I opened out for finalrolling, and Fig. 10 is a plan view of the annulus shown in Fig. 9

after it has been opened out to enable one end thereof to be introducedinto the bar or plate rolls.

Like symbols refer to like partswherever ,1 0

they occurl I will now proceed to describe my invention more fully sothat others skilled in the art to which itappertains may apply the same.

withdrawn from-the;

mold. The main point to attended to in-1'? producing this annularcasting'isto see that v In the drawings, A indicates an annular the samehas what 1' term an attenuated section, that is to say, the crosssection or thickness of the ingot, as at 2-2, is such that a quick anduniform settingor congelation of the molten metal throughout the masswill ensue, or in other words, the radiating surface of the casting isso proportioned to the thickness and total weight of-the molten massthat no ortion of the massremains fluid long enoug to be drawn toanother portion of the mass, as would occur if one part solidifiedmaterially earlier than another. As a f'esultof this step of my processpiping in the ingot is avoided, and a uniform quality of metal isobtained throughout the mass.

r Sinking heads a may or may not be mm ployed in casting the hollowsteel ingot A, and this will be measurably determined b the dimensionsof the ingot, as it is wel understood by those skilled in theart that inlarge castings the use of sinking heads to compensate for shrinkage ofthe mass in cooling will insure greater solidity in the casting, andfurthermore piping, if any occurs, will take place in the sinking headswith a resultant minimum of loss. Having thus obtained a hollow caststeel ingot A of attenuated section, and of the required length to givethe desired dimensions when reduced to bar or plate form said ingot istransformed by pressure, preferably hydrostatic pressure, so as todiminish the length and increase the diameter thereof. This operationwill result, in the case of the annular ingot A, in the production of an-annular blank A, whereinthe metal of the mass has been displacedlaterally or radially both inwardly and outwardly from the center of theingot, and is in the best condition for the operation of rolls in thesubsequent reduction of the blank. The blank A is then subjected in itsannular form to the operation of rolls which increase the diameter ofthe annulus and reduce its cross section to the dimensions required forsubmission to the rolls of a bar or plate mill as the case may be, asindicated at A", after which the rolled annulus A is cut at one or morepoints 6%,; and the single billet or the several sections thereof arereduced to ultimate bar or plate form in suitable mills. In case of asingle section of the rolled annulus A', as shown in Fig. 9, the blankmay be opened out as indicated at a, Fig. 10, to enable the end of thebillet to be entered in the bar or plate rolls.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patcut is:

An improvement in the method of manufacturing steel bars and plates,which consists in producing a hollow ingot of attenuated section topermit quick and uniform setting of the molten mass, transforming saidingot by pressure which increases the diameter and reduces the lengththereof, rolling the annular blank thus produced to increase thediameter and reduce the cross section thereof, and finall severing theannular rolled blank and su mitting the billet or billets obtained torolling in suitable mills to produce theultimate bar or plate.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature,

in the presence of two subscribing witnesses WILLIAM McooNWAY.

Witnesses:

'HooH M. STERLING,

M fl-Bannanr.

